Pregnant or miscarriage? 6 weeks

[Fluck]

Realistically I know nobody can tell me this but oh my gosh the waiting around is the worse part. For the past 3 days I’ve had a slight amount of bright red spotting in the morning (so when wiping for a few wees but not all and only when I wake up apart from a little bit last night) - bright red = miscarriage as far as I’m aware. So I’m coming to terms with this disappointment rather than dream about my June baby however I’ve just wiped this morning and there is no blood. So confused!!! How long do miscarriages usually take (which again is a stupid question as a mmc can go unnoticed)? What would you do?

I’ve also got 2 year out of date strips which google tells me should not pick up as much HCG so I wouldn’t say 100% accurate however it looks like it’s slightly lighter compared to last week. So miscarriage? Do I wait it out or book a private scan or refer myself, really don’t know what to do and DH is not being helpful 🙁

Hi @Fluck so sorry to hear you are going through this. Your best bet is to go down to your local early pregnancy unit, they will be able to scan you and tell you what is going on. The test you showed is very light for 6 weeks, but as you say that might be because they are old. If you are actually 6 weeks pregnant (depends on ovulation) then I’d expect a miscarriage to be more than a bit of a bleed, more like a heavy period. This is another reason to go to EPU as you might need tablets to help what may be a partial mmc. Having said that, there are tonnes of reasons that you can bleed while you’re pregnant and it might be something completely innocent. Wishing you the best.

Hi, thanks for replying. I’ve wiped again and there is some red blood again! Good point about maybe needing tablets, I will try to get an appt in the EPU and see if it ends up happening before then or not. Just a complete mind fuck thinking is it / isn’t it - especially this morning with no blood!

I had red blood. It doesn't always indicate miscarriage. It was only when it was very heavy that it became more likely that's it's miscarriage. I has to sit on the toilet it was too heavy for pads at its heaviest. Only 1 in 3 pregnancies with bleeding end in miscarriage.
I presented in a and E when the bleeding was heavy where they monitored my HCG levels for the pregnancy and my haemoglobin for blood loss. I was seen the next day in the epu where they did a scan and repeated the HCG levels. My HCG levels had halved which indicated the pregnancy had ended. It took 3 weeks for my HCG levels to return to normal and I had pregnancy nausea for 5 days after my miscarriage, the first 3 days I was still on my antiemetics so it can take a while for your HCG to drop so I wouldn't put too much weight on the outcome of the out of date tests

Phone the epu and monitor the blood loss. If it's only spotting and when you wipe that's a positive sign. I went from spotting to very heavy bleeding in less than a day.

Good luck and stay optimistic x

Thankyou, I have spoken to 3 different people this morning!

1. Did an online referreral for midwife but no way to leave any comments - so phoned up. They said they can’t refer me to EPU until the booking in appt has been completed so go through GP as it will be quicker.
2. Phoned GP, they said the EPU doesn’t need a referral so just go - it will take longer to get a referral from doctor. I live in an area with no EPU directly but there’s two different ones I could go to, one referral one not. I didn’t realise the other one didn’t need referrals.
3. Phoned EPU I want to go to (other is much further and I’d imagine busier) they said yes they are referral only but prefer you to be 7 weeks (I’m 6+2) so they said phone back GP for referral.

Everyone was very sympathetic and lovely but I really don’t have the energy right now so I’ll just keep playing the waiting game. If I get to 7 weeks without the miscarriage happening I’ll go to the non-referral place!

That’s positive @Superscientist - I’m googling like mad and see a lot of stories like this (so various reasons why you could bleed, and it’s not getting any heavier either after 4 days) but also the other side too where people have m/c. It’s just the not knowing limbo which is hurting me most right now. Either way I just want to know so that I can get my head round it!